SENATOR THE HON RICHARD COLBECK
Senator for Tasmania
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation, Industry and Science
M E D I A R E L E A S E
Friday, October 5, 2012
What is Woolworths’ response to food processing Senate inquiry recommendations?
The homecoming of Woolworth’s CEO Grant O’Brien was a chance to catch up on where the grocery giant was placed on key senate inquiry recommendations, Senator Richard Colbeck said.
Mr O’Brien has returned to home state Tasmania for a Devonport Chamber of Commerce and Industry dinner tonight (Fri) – where Senator Colbeck plans to discuss the inquiry he chaired during an exhaustive, 12-month process. It produced 35 recommendations.
“It’s been a good couple of months since the inquiry into Australia’s food processing sector has reported and the supermarkets have had ample time to consider the recommendations they have influence over,” Senator Colbeck said.
“It’s great to have Mr O’Brien back in Tasmania and I would congratulate him for spending time with some of our farmers, as he did today.
“This is the ideal opportunity for him to outline Woolworths’ views on the inquiry recommendations over which the supermarkets have some influence.”
Those included:
Recommendation 6 – that suppliers’ satisfaction in dealing with the supermarkets be measured, benchmarked and regularly reported.
“In the lead up to the tabling of the report both major supermarkets published shiny booklets full of the smiling faces of farmers telling us how they loved their supermarkets. The evidence to the committee and my own discussions with farmers indicate that this is not the complete story,” Senator Colbeck said.
“Supplier satisfaction is obviously important, but what is the real measure? The committee recommended an independent measure of supplier satisfaction. What is Woolworths view on this?
Recommendation 11 – that smart phone and bar code technology be introduced to give shoppers additional information about country of origin of food products.
“The Canadian fishing industry is doing some very impressive work in this area – allowing hundreds of thousands of customers to know exactly where their fish are caught. Australians are involved in implementing that technology.
“The committee also recommended more detailed provenance information be made available via smart phone technology. Is Woolworths looking to progress this any further?”
Recommendation 15 – that supermarkets introduce one uniform certification scheme for food products.
“During the inquiry we met with a number of suppliers and processors who had to comply with several certification systems just for market access, all were fundamentally similar and some variations were about business differentiation rather than food safety or quality.
“All these systems add cost to the supply chain, some of it unnecessary. The committee recommended that a common recognition framework be developed to save red tape and cost to the benefit of suppliers and consumers.”
“We would be very interested to know Woolworths willingness to participate in what we see as a common sense suggestion.”
Full inquiry report: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate_Committees?url=foodprocessing_ctte/foodprocessing/report/index.htm
Senator Richard Colbeck
